FBI: Early test shows ricin in Obama letter

WASHINGTON — A letter addressed to President Barack Obama is being checked for a “suspicious substance,” a day after a letter addressed to a U.S. senator tested positive for poisonous ricin, the U.S. Secret Service says.

The letter to Obama arrived Tuesday and was intercepted at a facility away from the White House, said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan. The FBI says preliminary test indicates poisonous ricin in letter sent to Obama. The letter is undergoing further testing because preliminary field tests can be unreliable, creating false positives.

Word of the letter comes a day after lawmakers revealed that a letter mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker tested positive for poisonous ricin. That letter to Wicker, a Republican, was intercepted at a Senate mail facility just outside Washington

There was no word if the letters were connected.

Tensions have been high in Washington and across the country since the deadly bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170.

The letter to Wicker, a Republican, was intercepted at a Senate mail facility just outside Washington and has tested positive for ricin. Sen. Claire McCaskill has said authorities have a suspect in mind in that case, though no one has been charged.

“The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Tuesday as she emerged from a classified briefing.

Authorities declined to comment on a suspect or any other aspect of the investigation being led by Capitol Police and the FBI. The letter was intercepted at a Senate mail facility in Prince George’s County, Md., just outside Washington, said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate’s Democratic leadership.